New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1887-10-02
MORAL IDEAS.

In derision the Republican party was once
called "the God and Morality party" There
upon it achieved victory, and those who derided
its claim to be the party of moral ideas were
compelled to admit that its appeal to the public
sense of duty had proved powerful enough to
bury old issues and old parties. Emancipation.
reconstruction, enf1anchisement, raised Ques-
lions of right and wrong. These in turn drove
the deep ploughshare of change through the
political soil, and parties wero rcadjusted In
membership leadership and aims to meet new
issues of moral obligation. Ancient politicians
Of the spoils-hunting era sneercd and snarlcd,
but in spite of them selfish interest was sub
ordinated to the demands Of duty.
We may be sure that the world has not gone
backward Greed and gain have not usurped
the place of duty as the ruling motive in pol
tical action. The Democratic politicians who
imagine that party can be built up and inn
pregnably fortified by cunning division OF the
Offices are to learn their error. After four
years of Sinking every duty and breaking
every pledge, they viii have to answer voters
who ask 81 If the public service was full OF
rOttcnness why have you not reformed 1t \?
If the tariff is robbery of the many for the
few, why have you attempted no radical change
If the Government was in the interest Of en-
ployers and monopolists, what have you done
to restore the rights of labor %
The only living issues which go deep and
tend to change the future of parties are those
which involve moral obligation. New parties
enlist the support of considerable bodies OF
voters because they claim to embody more
truly than any old party the conceptions OF
duty which govern conscientious voters. The
Democratic party will be ground to powder II
it cannot show that it cares for the condition
and the welfare of working men and women
moro wisely than the party which Mr.. George
and Father McGlynn are leading. The Re
publican party, in like manner, has to convince
conscientious voters that it deals more wisely
and Justly with the evil Of intemperance and
the traffic in liquor than the party which urges
prohibition in all places and for all sorts OF
communities alike.
II is the notion of old fashioned politicians
that the tariff and financial questions have
nothing to do with moral obligation; that they
concern only the selfish interests OF different
classes of citizens. The answer of the Repub-
lican party is that American labor is protected.
not for the benefit of emp overs. but to secure
for the laboring men of this country conditions
consistent with their rights as moral beings,
as husbands and fathers and as citizens of a
lf-governing country. If protection does not
meet that test, il it is not required as duty Of
the fortunate and powerful to the many who
toll and suffer, then Mr.. George has some
reason to expect Republican as well as Dem
ocratic supporters. So the Democratic politi-
clan tries to consider the liquor trallic as ono
which, like any other branch OF business. con-
Germs only the gain of individuals by legitimate
industry. If he cannot show that his hostility
10 all regulation of that traffic is as justfable
as hostility to any interference with the sale OF
bread and meat and the ncccssaries of life, he
stands condemned, whether prohibition is the
wisest remedy or not. Moral ideas turn tho
scale. If the Republican party is right, restraint
Of The liquor traffic that is in each locality
practicable, and adapted to the state of public
sentiment, is more effective and more just
than prohibition which often proves i'm
practicable and useless. If the Republican
party is right, barriers against foreign COM
petition, with free land for every industrious
settler do more to uplift the condition Of tho
worker, moro to insure his independence. more
to discharge the duty of the State to its laboring
citizens, than can be done by all the theories
of Mr.. George and his associates